Articles: palliative-care.
-
Develop quality indicators that measure access to and the quality of primary PC delivered to seriously ill surgical patients. ⋯ This set of quality indicators provides a comprehensive set of process measures that possess the potential to measure high quality PC for seriously ill surgical patients throughout the surgical episode.
-
Palliative medicine · Jan 2022
Meta AnalysisNavigating the caregiving abyss: A metasynthesis of how family caregivers manage end-of-life care for older adults at home.
Demographic changes (global aging, decreased fertility, increased home deaths) will present a critical need for end-of-life family caregivers of older adults at home. In order to support these family caregivers, we need to better understand their experiences, struggles, and needs. ⋯ Family caregivers of older adults at the end of life navigate a variety of challenges. The findings provide a conceptual framework to help guide the development of education, interventions, and health policy to meet family caregivers' needs in providing quality end-of-life care.
-
Palliative medicine · Jan 2022
ReviewAdaptation and continuous learning: integrative review of coping strategies of palliative care professionals.
Coping is essential to manage palliative care professionals' challenges. The focus has been on the effects of coping mechanism; however, little is known about coping itself in palliative care. ⋯ The model showed a process of adaptation and learning to persevere in palliative care. It changes over time under factors and strategies, and evolves in a personal and professional transformation, parallel to the working life. It would be worth assessing coping in healthcare professionals who chose to leave palliative care and to investigate the reasons they did so and their coping mechanisms.
-
Background: During the height of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in New York City, COVID-19 hospitalization was associated with high mortality. It is unknown how palliative care was utilized in this context. Objectives: To describe the frequency of palliative care consultation and its association with end-of-life care for deceased patients with COVID-19. ⋯ Palliative care consultation was associated with fewer invasive procedures (0, IQR 0-2, vs. 2, IQR 0-3, p < 0.01), less mechanical ventilation (32 patients, 29.9% vs. 65 patients, 67.7%, p < 0.01), and fewer ICU admissions (33 patients, 30.8% vs. 69 patients, 71.9%, p < 0.01). Palliative care was associated with shorter ICU stays (0 days, IQR 0-4, vs. 4 days, IQR 0-12, p < 0.01), whereas hospital stays did not differ significantly (8 days, IQR 5-12.5, vs. 10 days, IQR 5-16.3, p = 0.15). Conclusion: Palliative care was consulted for roughly half of deceased patients with COVID-19 and those patients were less likely to undergo invasive procedures or life-sustaining treatments and spent less time in the ICU at the end of life.